E-way bill roll out: New system for transportation of goods to be effective tomorrow

A 15-day trial for nationwide e-way bill system that began on January 16 will end today. With this, from tomorrow, new e-way bill system will come into effect. Under the new system, every transporters will have to carry a system-generated bill to move goods from one place to another. These bills can be generated from the GSTN portal. The e-way bill system was introduced to bring uniformity across the states for seamless inter-state movement of goods.

The system was to be implemented earlier, but couldn’t be done as the required IT infrastructure wasn’t in place. Last month, the GST Council decided to implement the e-way bill mechanism throughout the country from February 1. In a notification, the GSTN informed the transporters that E-way bill would become mandatory for inter-state movements of goods from February 1, 2018. It further said that the nationwide e-way bill system would be ready to be rolled out on a trial basis by January 16.

Ahead of the trials on e-way bill generation, GST Network CEO Prakash Kumar explained the system’s preparedness and infrastructure capabilities to handle the transition. He said that the e-way bill system is designed to handle around 50 lakhs e-way bills per day. The GSTN expects 10 lakh bills for interstate and 35-40 lakh bills for intra-state. The software for the new system has been developed by the government’s premier science and technology organisation: National Informatics Centre. While, the GSTN owns the software, it will be run and operated by the NIC.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT E-WAY BILL

What is e-way bill?E-way bill is an electronic document generated on the GST portal evidencing movement of goods. Every registered person who causes movement of goods (which may not necessarily be on account of supply) of consignment value more than Rs 50000 is required to furnish the details of GSTIN of recipient, place of delivery, invoice or challan number and date, value of goods, HSN code, transport document number (Goods Receipt Number or Railway Receipt Number or Airway Bill Number or Bill of Lading Number) and reasons for transportation and transporter details (Vehicle number).

Who should generate it and why?E-way bill can be generated by the consignor or consignee himself if the transportation is being done in own/hired conveyance or by railways by air or by Vessel. If the goods are handed over to a transporter for transportation by road, the bill will be generated by the transporter. Where neither the consignor nor consignee generates the e-way bill and the value of goods is more than Rs.50,000 it shall be the responsibility of the transporter to generate it.

Purpose of e-way billE-way bill is a mechanism to ensure that goods being transported comply with the GST Law and is an effective tool to track movement of goods and check tax evasion.
Validity of e-way bill
The validity of e-way bill depends on the distance to be travelled by the goods. For a distance of less than 100 Km the e-way bill will be valid for a day from the relevant date. For every 100 Km thereafter, the validity will be additional one day from the relevant date. The “relevant date” shall mean the date on which the e-way bill has been generated and the period of validity shall be counted from the time at which the e-way bill has been generated and each day shall be counted as twenty-four hours.
What if goods cannot be transported within the period?
In general, the validity of the e-way bill cannot be extended. However, Commissioner may extend the validity period only by way of issue of notification for certain categories of goods. Further, if under circumstances of an exceptional nature, the goods cannot be transported within the validity period of the e-way bill, the transporter may generate another e-way bill after updating the details again.
Cases where e-way bill is not required
According to CBEC, there are some exceptions to e-way bill requirement. It said: “No e-way bill is required to be generated in the cases where goods being transported by a non-motorised conveyance; goods being transported from the port, airport, air cargo complex and land customs station to an inland container depot or a container freight station for clearance by Customs; and when Consignment value is less than Rs 50,000 among others.”